BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
USA Armenian Life E-Newsletter (Electronic Distribution — e-blast)
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly (Armenian-language print edition)
USA Armenian LifeFACEBOOK
www.armenianlif.com
The August 4th explosion at Port of Beirut left at least 200 dead, 7,000 injured, and hundreds of Lebanese Armenian and Lebanese businesses, homes, and community institutions devastated, including a dozen of mosques and churches.
The hard-hit communities including Christians and Muslims alike. The gigantic explosions didn’t spare no one in its immediate vicinity.
Urgently needed are massive humanitarian efforst providing assistance to help Lebanon address the immediate humanitarian crisis facing the country, aid in the recovery effort – including medical care and treatment for the injured and efforts for cleanup of the blast site and other impacted areas. And help the Country of Cedars start reconstruction efforts as spidly as possible.
Lebanon stands out as a model of pluralism, tolerance, and co-existence.”
The Lebanese national catastroophe came amid Lebanon’s efforts to battle the Covid-19 pandemic and dire economic downturn in the country with high rate of unemployment. While the poor has been suffering already, now the Lebanese middle class is fast vanishing. The economic misfortunes must be stoped dead in its tracks.
Otherwise, Lebanon will continue to be targetted for systematic depopulation covertly pursued by Lebanon neighbors.
In order to stop dead in its track internal and external dark forces’ efforts for the systematic depopulation of Lebanon, Lebanese people and friends of Lebanon around the world need to set their differences aside and urgently start cooperating to
1) Eradicate corruption at every level of government;
2) Revitalize the economy through revitalization of several industries
There is no question that real culprits behind this potentially heinous act or individuals causing this ‘accident’ must be identified and held accountable.
As Lebanese and their friends move on to revitalize Lebanon, the truth will come out sooner or later. They must
1) Ask all the hard questions without covering up the acts of any potential wrongdoers;
2) Help Lebanon revitalize by relaunching local production and mnufacturing of several goods that used to crafted in Lebanon. Over the course of several decades, Lebanon has lost its limited industrial base and began massively improting most items that used to locally produced. The interantional trade imbalance has to be addressed in earnest;
3) Ensure Lebanon not to lose its population as a certain neighbors would love to gobble up Lebanon just like Azerbaijan and Turkey would like to depopulate Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh) and annex all the remaining historic Armenian territories.
First things first: Emergency Himanitarian Aid for Lebanon is urgently needed.
Whom can you entrust your donations to assist Lebanon?
There are currently several entities that are soliciting donations for various causes including aid for Lebanon.
While it is a noble act to conduct fundraisers to aid Lebanon, and other causes in the American Armenian community, donors must apply caution as to whom to entrust with their hard-earned donations.
WARNING FROM SEVERAL AMERICAN ARMENIANS: No funds should be entrusted to individuals with shadowy characters and entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by questionable individuals.
On Thusrday August 6, several readers alerted editorial team about an email they have received from Western Diocese Arch. Hovnan Derderian and Karekin II soliciting donations. Many expressed their indignation stating that “in the light of numerous nefarious acts of gross mismanagement and massive misappropriatiins by both Derderian and Karekin II, they’ll decline to donate through them but through credible and trustworthy entities.” A number of them urged USA Armenian Life to publish “a list of TRUSTWORTHY ENTITIES vs. UNTRUSTWORTHY/ILLEGITIMATE ENTITIES that are raising funds to help Lebanon.”
It is the fiduciary duty of the Free Press in general and specifically investigative reporters to alert their readers/viewers/listeners on entities that misrepresent themselves or operate under a shadow – away from accountability and in total absence of transparency.
The editorial team at USA Armenian Life Magazine reporters and journalists uphold the practice of transparency and considers it critically important to pursue accountability and transparency on all levels of community life locally and globally.
Therefore, in cooperation with a network of investigative reporters in United States, Canada, France, Armenia, Lebanon, and other countries, USA Armenian Life Magazine, Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly, armenianlife.com, USA Armenian Life Facebook’s editorial staff has identified a list of reliable entities.
Here’s a list:
TRUSTWORTHY-LEGITIMATE ENTITIES
TRUSTWORTHY Armenian Missionary Association of America
TRUSTWORTHY Armenian Relief Society of Western U.S.
TRUSTWORTHY Armenian Relief Society of Eastern U.S.
TRUSTWORTHY Armenia Fund U.S.A. (Eastern and Western)
UNTRUSTWORTHY/ILLEGITIMATE ENTITIES:
UNTRUSTWORTHY: Current occupier of the position of Catholicos
of All Armenians Karekin II (who
has a proven record of gross mismanagement and massive misappropriations since 1999 to present)
UNTRUSTWORTHY: Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America under Primate Arch. Hovnan Derderian (who has a proven record of gross mismanagement and massive misappropriations in a) Canada as Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada (1990-2003) and in
b) Western United States as Primate, Western Diocese of the Armenian Church (2003-Presenbt)
ILLEGITIMATE ENTITY: Countrary to its claims to be a “pan
Armenian Council,” The self-proclaimed Pan Armenian Council of Western United States of America (PAC-WUSA) has NOT been elected by the Western U.S. American Armenian population. Therefore they are not what they’re claiming to be. Furthermore, they have just announced donation soliciting under the banner of Hye Aid when in hyeaid.com belongs to another entity. Thei writer has contacted the officials at Hyeaid.com and they said that they have not intitated any kind of fundraiser.
The self-proclaimed Pan Armenian Council of Western United States of America (PAC-WUSA) is controlled primarily by two autocrats ARF oligarch Viken Hovsepian, and Western Diocese oligarch Arch. Hovnan Derderian (who has a proven record of gross mismanagement and massive misappropriations in a) Canada as Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada (1990-2003); and in b) Western United States as Primate, Western Diocese of the Armenian Church (2003-Present)
Viken Hovsepian, and Hovnan Derderian continue to misrepresent themselves as the top leaders of Western U.S. Armenians without any popular mandate for representation.
In his criticism of The self-proclaimed Pan Armenian Council of Western United States of America (PAC-WUSA) Harut Sassounian, Publisher/ Editor of California Courier wrote: “The name of the new Pan Armenian Council should have been something like ‘Coalition of Armenian Organizations of Western USA.’ Pan Armenian means that all Armenians in Western USA are members of this Council, whereas only members of certain organizations are represented in it. The great majority of Armenians, who are not members of any organization, are not represented in this Council. … Finally, the true Pan Armenian Council or an entity with a similar name should be elected by the votes of all Armenians in the Western USA or throughout the Diaspora, not just by members of several organizations. Only such a democratic entity can claim to represent all Armenians and speak in their name.”
Commenting on the formation of the Pan Armenian Council of Western United States, Cal State University, Long Beach,
Political Science Prof. Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian stated: “Self-perpetuating oligarchy is the thing of the past. We live now in the 21st century with the aim of abolishing the old ways of the 17th-18th-century schemes of running social, business and government affairs. We need to be represented by elected members of the community by means of a popular vote so that each citizen would have the power to replace, when the need arises, the deadwood representatives serving on the council. Without democratic elections, the Pan Armenian Council of Western United States leaders would be considered illegitimate representatives of the Armenian community by hijacking the prerogative of every Diaspora Armenian’s unalienable right to vote for their preferred candidate. Those who are guided by strong convictions of democratic principles would abhor the camouflaged usurpation of power by a small group of ego-driven, self-serving individuals.”
This list will be updated periodically for public knowledge and in the collective inetrests of the community.